English word stress

1. English word stress Prepared By: Mr. Emad M. Hamdouna M.A. in Linguistics

2. Suffixes that do not affect stress placement • able: ‘comfort ‘comfortable • age: ‘anchor ‘anchorage • Al-/ en-/ ful-/ ing-/ ish- • Like: bird birdlike • Ment: punish punishment • Ness: yellow yellowness

3. Stress Replacement • Suffixes: • Suffixes carrying primary stress themselves “ain” (for-verbs only) Entertain Ascertain “ee” Refugee Evacuee

4. Prefixes • There is no of one or two syllables that always carries primary stress. • Words with prefixes will be treated as words without prefixes.

5. Compound words • Compound with an adjectival first element and the –ed morpheme at the end have stress in the second element. • Bad- ‘tempered • Half- ‘timbered • Heavy- ‘handed

6. Suffixes that influence stress in the stem • Eous: advantage advantageous • Graphy: photo photography • Ty: tranquil tranquility

7. “eer” • Mountaineer volunteer • “ese” • Portuguese journalese • “ette” • Cigarette launderette • “Esque” –’ique’ • Picturesque Unique

8. Word-class paris • Words that can be either nouns, adjectives or verbs, depending on the stress • ‘Abstract (n) Ab’stract (v) • ‘Import (n) im’port (v) • ‘Perfect (a) Per’fect (v)

9. Compounds in which the first element is a number in some form also tend to have final stress • Three- ‘wheeler • Second- ‘class • Five- ‘finger

10. Compounds functioning as adverbs are usually final-stress • Head- 'first • North- 'east • Down 'stream